Digify can set Gmail attachments to self-destruct, Mission Impossible style

Digify can make your Gmail attachments self-destruct, in the name of security and privacy.

Image Credit: Digify

Digify is announcing a security technology that makes it possible to track, unsend, and even self-destruct email attachments sent through Google’s Gmail.

The Digify tracking allows Gmail users to see when and where their content is forwarded, and they can choose to unsend attachments at any time. The Digify for Gmail service is available today as a free extension for the Chrome browser. Gmail has more than a billion active users and 5 million businesses using it.

Based in San Francisco and Singapore, Digify has created a secure multi-platform file-sending service.

Digify for Gmail is integrated directly into Gmail, allowing users to track and unsend the file if necessary from inside the Gmail/Chrome interface. Digify helps to save Gmail users time by eliminating uncertainty on whether a file has been opened or not, and whether it has been forwarded. It also gives the assurance that wrong information is not out there forever, by giving the sender the option to unsend it. Unlike Gmail’s email unsend, which is only valid for up to 30 seconds, Digify’s unsend option is valid anytime.

“When people sent attachments in the past, they were releasing their content out there forever,” said Augustine Lim, founder and CEO of Digify, in a statement. “Digify for Gmail lets the sender stay in control of their attachments, by keeping them informed on what’s happening to their content. It also gives them the freedom to unsend files anytime if they are sent by mistake.”

The Digify platform lets users copy protect a file so that it cannot be copied or downloaded. When a file is unsent, within seconds the recipient will no longer be able to access the file, even if they have the file open at the time. The files can’t be downloaded, copied, saved, or uploaded elsewhere.

Digify is available on the web, iOS, and Android.

By clicking the red Digify for Gmail button, users can send a Digify file from the Gmail Compose window in Chrome. Email recipients click an embedded link in the email to view the file on the web.

“We aim to provide an alternative to the regular Gmail attachment button,” Lim said. “With the new red Digify for Gmail button, we are making it as easy for Gmail users to attach files, yet they can retain control over what happens to their email attachments even after they’ve hit send.”

File tracking statistics can also be accessed within Gmail via a new “track and unsend anytime” button within the interface. “People spend hours creating proposals and content, but didn’t know whether they had been read,” Lim said. “Now Gmail users can share files easily and worry-free, know who’s reading, and unsend them anytime, for any reason.”

Basic tracking, unsend, and self-destruct features are available for free to all Gmail users. Paid users have access to the full range of Digify’s advanced security options. Paid features include restricted forwarding, additional encryption, stricter copy protection, and expiry and self-destruct timers. Screenshots are discouraged by the company’s patent-pending movable watermark technology.